Wife on trial for murdering Jewish husband at Prestwich home, court hears

A Prestwich grandmother has gone on trial accused of murdering her husband of almost three decades, in a case that has unsettled one of north Manchester’s largest Jewish communities.

According to the Manchester Evening News, Daryl Berman, 71, denies murdering 84-year-old David Berman, who died from a single stab wound at the couple’s Butterstile Lane home in March. Mr Berman, a well-known figure in the local Jewish community, had been married to the defendant for 27 years and was described by relatives as having a warm and devoted relationship with his wife.

Opening the prosecution case, Michael Brady KC alleged Mrs Berman stabbed her husband deliberately “for a reason known only to her”, before calling 999 and suggesting he must have fallen onto a small kitchen knife. Family members later told police her “matter of fact and emotionless” behaviour in the days following his death felt out of keeping with expected grief.

Jurors heard that police initially treated the incident as accidental. Mrs Berman called 999 at 1.55pm on 13 March, reporting that her husband had slipped while carrying lunch trays. Paramedics found Mr Berman on the kitchen floor and he was pronounced dead minutes later.

Concerns raised at hospital prompted a pathologist to be called. Dr Phillip Lumb found the fatal wound had “typical features of a homicide” and said it was “very unlikely” to have been caused by a fall. A second pathologist instructed by the coroner agreed. Mr Berman also had a wound to his finger, which prosecutors say may indicate an attempt to defend himself.

Mr Berman, who had recently been diagnosed with dementia, had spent the morning with his daughter and great-granddaughter at a play centre and was said to have been “in the best health his family had seen for some time”.

In her police interview, Mrs Berman insisted the stabbing was accidental, saying she heard her husband stumble before finding him face down in a pool of blood. “I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,” she told officers. “I screamed, ‘David, you can’t go like this.’”

Mrs Berman was arrested on suspicion of murder on 18 March after the post-mortem findings.

Brady told the jury they must decide whether Mr Berman’s death was a “tragic accident” or the result of a deliberate stabbing.